Hope's New Home

The Dream Is Now Reality

Upstate University Hospital is known as the region’s most comprehensive resource for cancer care.

In July, it grew even stronger to serve more patients and their families.

The Upstate Cancer Center offers the most advanced outpatient treatment, clinical research studies, and support services all in one convenient location.

Cancer treatments, cancer research, education, and prevention provides hope and inspiration. The Cancer Center has received strong support from patients, families, caregivers and the community.

Benefits for Patients

True Multidisciplinary Care

The Upstate Cancer Center will deliver true multidisciplinary care. Patients will receive the best opinion on managing their disease from a team of experts who consult together: surgeons, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists and other specialists. This provides personalized treatment tailored to each patient’s needs. Our multidisciplinary programs include:

Upstate’s interdisciplinary cancer team includes 90 board-certified physicians, all of whom are professors at our College of Medicine, and who play a leading role in educating the next generation of providers.

Awards and Accreditation

Upstate has the region’s only cancer program approved by the American College of Surgeons’ Commission on Cancer, achieving maximum commendation for the last 10 years. Additionally, Upstate’s Breast Oncology Program is the only program in Upstate, NY, to be accredited by the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers.

Upstate is the region’s only provider for children who have cancer. Upstate also is part of the Children’s Oncology Group, an international network which provides the same treatments and recovery rates of high profile, national centers.

Technology

The Upstate Cancer Center houses the newest technologies to help patients survive their diseases. More options mean more opportunities for personalized, effective treatment, with fewer side effects and better quality of life.

Upstate offers patients the widest range of radiotherapy treatment options in the region. Recent investments include the Varian TrueBeam radiotherapy system, and a Vero stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) system. Varian TrueBeam can treat cancers located anywhere in the body, delivering radiation to tumors with extreme precision, sparing healthy tissue. The Vero SBRT at the Upstate Cancer Center is the third in the nation and combines image-guided radiotherapy and real-time tumor tracking. The Vero delivers tightly focused radiation to difficult-to-reach locations in the body.

The intra-operative suite is being developed as a hightech area consisting of a full-service operating room, oriented to neurosurgery, and featuring an advanced MRI and a bi-plane angiography suite as well as a pre-op and recovery area. This sophisticated suite will be one of only 10 similar facilities in the country.

Research

Upstate’s Cancer Research Institute has an emphasis on translating laboratory discoveries to patient care. Its connection to the new Upstate Cancer Center facilitates collaboration between researchers and clinicians to answer thought-provoking questions, to enroll patients in National Institute of Health clinical trials, and to drive advanced cancer treatments into practice.

Built for Patients

The new Upstate Cancer Center will greatly enhance the care environment for patients. Upstate sees more than 2,000 new cancer patients per year, resulting in 45,000 visits on the downtown campus and additional visits to our satellite locations.

This beautiful and functional space will provide a healing environment, lift spirits, and foster hope. In addition to bringing services under one roof, the Center will facilitate new activities as well:

Healing garden

Meditation room

Accommodations for integral therapies such as Reiki, yoga, acupuncture and others the community may desire

Room for support services such as social work, nutritional counseling, patient navigators, and the American Cancer Society, among others

Conference rooms for clinicians and scientists to meet and for patient and caregiver support groups

A patient and family education center

Prevention, screening, risk assessment and survivorship programs

Unique Services

Within the setting of the region’s only academic medical university, our dedicated team and services make the Upstate Cancer Center unique.

Our academic strengths include:

Pediatric oncology

Orthopedic oncology

Minimally invasive lung cancer surgery

Bone marrow transplant

Major surgery for cancer in the liver and pancreas

Advanced surgery for head and neck cancer

Radiologists and pathologists who specialize in specific cancers

Geneticists, helping patients and families assess the impact that family history and genetic make-up have on their risk of cancer

Surgeons of all types integral to our oncology practice

Spiritual Care specialists

Medical librarian to staff the patient and family education center

Medical anthropologists and epidemiologists who study cancer in populations and communities

Basic cancer researchers who have the goal to bring discoveries in the lab to provide new therapies and cures